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Hi all! Happy Monday. Today I have a guest post about an issue that hits close to home with me and I’m sure many of you, too. We’re going to be talking about the importance of SLEEP!

I am no stranger to having a hectic schedule, scrambling to find time for everything, and ending up having to sacrifice that crucial shut-eye time. When that does happen, I feel the difference. It’s pretty amazing how I can feel one day after a good night’s sleep as compared to a not-so-good night’s sleep the next. Blog reader, Marguerite, brings about some good points in regards to how sleep can effect us. Basically the bottom line is: don’t skimp on it!

Sleep and Its Effect on our Health

Most of the people today are worried about their health and talk a lot about it all the time. They try various diet plans, different workout programs and many other ways to keep them healthy. They also seek advice from their doctors and are asked to exercise and eat healthy food. But, has anybody ever asked you how well you sleep? Do you know, the quality of your sleep can affect your weight and health overall?

Lack of Quality Sleep

Some people usually want to sleep as less as possible in order to get enough time to do more tasks, meet more people, work more, and so on. But lack of proper sleep can affect harshly on your brain. It does not only affect how you think, concentrate and deal with feelings but also affects your health and appetite. Also, sleep deprivation makes you to take harsh decisions, which can cause more volatile and negative emotions such as anger and stress. Stress leads to consuming foods that are high in sugar, fat or salt, which are detrimental to your health. Also, sleep deprivation can increase your hunger levels. People who suffer from sleep deprivation usually take frequent foods or end up having unhealthy foods, which make it hard to control the food choices.

Sleep Disorder Affects Your Weight and health

Sleep disorder has been linked with various health ailments amongst which, the biggest problem is its effect on your hormones. Particularly, Cortisol levels have a tendency to be elevated and stay the same way throughout the night. When you stop breathing during sleep or having difficulty in breathing is obvious by snoring and is the sign of your body’s response with the flight or fight reflex where Cortisol is produced and is active throughout the night.

Treating sleep disorders and snoring needs you to take an expert’s advice about your sleeping problems. You need to explain all the symptoms to the doctor not just that you are going through troubled sleep. There is a myth that if you have sleep deprivation you have to snore and that’s the symptom , but on the contrary people who have sleep deprivation need not necessarily snore, so that does not mean that you do not have sleep deprivations.

Some doctors say that “you can get rid of sleep deprivation and snoring problems if you lose weight”, but the fact is that you need to get rid of sleep deprivation in order to lose weight and also the factors which influence you to burn belly fat. You need to be your best advisor and should not stress yourself too much or change your food habits and exercising habits abruptly; otherwise you cannot be successful in your healthy living goal and the sudden changes may also adversely affect your weight.

Do Not Neglect the Little Stuff

Staying fit and healthy is definitely a great challenge even under good situations. There are a few small things that you can do to make your weight loss program easier to follow. Sleep is one of the crucial things that influence your weight and helps you stay healthy. Hence, make sure that you sleep at least 7 to 8 hours a day and ensure that you have a quality sleep; these two little things can help you a lot in achieving your weight loss or weight management.

Lastly you can bring in a lot of changes to your lifestyle following a strict bed time and also practicing yoga and other art forms which will keep you occupied with giving you enough scope to relax your mind. Follow these tips to have a sound sleep and you will stay healthy and fine forever.

*Author Bio: Marguerite being a fitness enthusiast loves to blog on fitness and topics related to fitness. You can check out her latest post on ways to lose belly fat on her website.

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Thanks Marguerite! Hopefully now we all have more reason to not end up like this guy:

Okay, be honest now…who’s been skimping on their sleep lately? *raises hand* Part of my problem is that I don’t always allow time for my mind to relax a bit before going to bed. Then once I do get into bed, i’m still thinking about things, which obviously keeps me awake. Something for me to work on for sure!

How do you unwind at the end of the day? reading a little always helps me! It takes my mind off my to-do list so I start to get sleepy. 🙂

I’ve been really working on getting a solid 8 hours a night. sometimes it’s hard to put down the computer or turn off the tv but i always know that i feel better the next day! it’s also helped me cut way back on coffee!

Ugh lately I’ve been having a horrible time with sleep, and only usually end up getting 5 or 6 hours a night. Definitely not enough, and it’s catching up to me! But I’ve been having a hard time shutting down my brain at night, so it takes me a while to fall asleep, and then once I wake up in the morning (like at 5 or 530), I can’t fall asleep again even if I don’t have to be up at that time. Super frustrating. Reading definitely helps, as does getting away from the computer at night. Now if only I could tell my brain to be quiet so I can get some good rest 😉

Sleep and I do not go very well together, HOWEVER, I am now the new owner of a sleep number bed, so Im really hopipng that will change!! Its still too hot here though, which makes it really difficult for me to fall asleep!